"On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools
unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. This pivotal decision
ushered in an emotional and trying period in our nation's history, the
effects of which still linger." Recalling this tumultuous time, Toni
Morrison has collected archival photographs that depict the events
surrounding school integration. These unforgettable images serve as the
inspiration for Professor Morrison's text - a fictional account of the
dialogue and emotions of the students who lived during the era of change in
separate-but-equal schooling. Remember offers a unique pictorial and
narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American
history and its relevance today.

The day Uncle Goodwin "Buddy" Bush came from Harlem all the way back home
to Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, is the day Pattie Mae Sheals'
life changes forever.

Pattie Mae adores and admires Uncle Buddy -- he's tall and handsome and he
doesn't believe in the country stuff most people believe in, like ghosts and
stepping off the sidewalk to let white folks pass. He unsettles the dust and
brings fresh ideas to Rehobeth Road. But when Buddy's deliberate inattention
to the protocol of 1947 North Carolina lands him in jail for a crime against a
white woman that he didn't commit, Pattie Mae and her family are suddenly set
to journeying on the long, hard road that leads from loss and rage to
forgiveness and pride.

Shelia P. Moses tells a moving and lyrical story in The Legend of Buddy
Bush that introduces the remarkable and memorable character of Pattie Mae
Sheals -- a girl whose sense of humor, ability to get into "grown folks
business," and determination to know the truth will endear her to readers
everywhere.

Who
Am I Without Him?: Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives
Click to order via Amazon

Teens Laugh, cry, scheme, and dream about the opposite sex in this
fascinating short-story collection spanning the scope of adolescent love.
A girl seeks advice on how to steal her best friend's thug. A boy discovers
what it means to be a man through his treatment of a woman. A teen's severe
skin disorder makes her retreat inside her own room, inside her own head.
These stories are often humorous, always on-point expositions of youth
determined to find self-worth, any way they know how.

Confronted daily with tough issues that seem only to increase as the school
day wears on, adolescents of all complexions struggle to make a place for
themselves in society while defining their significance in terms of their
allure to the other gender.

Sharon Flake's top-notch writing, delicate sensibility, and exceptional
insight into the world of boys and girls turning into young men and women will
keep readers riveted from beginning to end, consumed by the fast-paced,
intelligent pages of Who Am I Without Him?

There is a skeleton on display in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury,
Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. Over time, the bones
became the subject of stories and speculation in Waterbury. In 1996 a group of
community-based volunteers, working in collaboration with the museum staff,
discovered that the bones were those of a slave named Fortune who had been
owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor dissected the body,
rendered the bones, and assembled the skeleton. A great deal is still not
known about Fortune, but it is known that he was baptized, was married, and
had four children. He died at about the age of 60, sometime after 1797.Marilyn
Nelson was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum and received a grant from the
Connecticut Commission on the Arts to write a poem in commemoration of
Fortune's life. The Manumission Requiem is that poem. Detailed notes and
archival materials provide contextual information to enhance the reader's
appreciation of the poem.

About the AuthorMarilyn Nelson is
the Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut and a three-time National Book
Award Finalist. She has won the Annisfield-Wolf Award and the 1999 Poets'
Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award and the Lenore
Marshall Poetry Prize. Dr. Nelson lives in Storrs, Connecticut.

In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted
poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of
innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life
in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the
color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could
attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.

Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and
others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in
America, but also helped issue in a movement that "changed the world." Their
lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we
approach the challenges of tomorrow.

"Mama may have,
Papa may have,
But God bless the child
That's got his own!
That's got his own."

The song "God Bless the Child" was first performed by legendary jazz
vocalist Billie Holiday in 1939 and remains one of her enduring masterpieces.
In this picture book interpretation, renowned illustrator Jerry Pinkney has
created images of a family moving from the rural South to the urban North
during the Great Migration that reached its peak in the 1930s. The song's
message of self-reliance still speaks to us today but resonates even stronger
in its historical context. This extraordinary book stands as a tribute to all
those who dared so much to get their own. A free CD of Billie Holiday's
timeless recording of "God Bless the Child" is included to enjoy along with
the book.

About the Author
Billie Holiday is one of the most famous jazz singers of all time. She was
born Eleanora Fagan Gough in 1915 in Baltimore, Maryland, but changed her name
to Billie after her favorite film star, Billie Dove, and Holiday, which was
her father's last name. As a child and in the beginning stages of her career,
she endured many hardships but made her first recording in 1933 at the age of
eighteen. She quickly rose to stardom, and six years later she introduced the
world to two of her best-known songs: "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the
Child." Billie Holiday's star burned brightly, but too briefly. She died in
New York City at the age of forty-four.

�THE PEOPLE COULD FLY,� the title
story in Virginia Hamilton’s prize-winning American Black folktale collection,
is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that
enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of
those who did not have the opportunity to �fly� away, who remained slaves with
only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.

Leo and Diane Dillon have created
powerful new illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book
presentation of Virginia Hamilton’s most beloved tale. The author’s original
historical note as well as her previously unpublished notes are included.

During the early 1900s, eleven-year-old Viney spends her summer working for
the local midwife and learns firsthand about birth, death, and "catchin'
babies."

The summer that Viney is eleven years old is extraordinary. It takes her
out of school and puts her under the wing of Missy Violet, a well-loved
midwife whose wise and warm ways help teach Viney about the business of
catchin� babies. Suddenly, Viney must learn about roots and herbs and their
medicinal purpose, understand the contents of Missy Violet’s �birthin� bag,�
and contend with a snooty peer and wild, irrepressible cousin�Charles Elister
Paxton Nehemiah Windbush. And all this before she actually helps to deliver a
single baby! At turns scary, funny, and exhilarating, the rhythm of Viney’s
rural life in the South quickens as she embraces her apprenticeship and finds
her own special place as Missy Violet’s �best helper girl.� Hot jiggetty!

One fine evening, Miz Mozetta puts on her firecracker-red dress and heads
outside to enjoy the moonlight. When she hears the neighborhood kids' music,
she's inspired to dance, but her old friends have too many aches and pains to
join her. The kids doubt that Miz Mozetta would be able to keep up with them. So
she retreats to her parlor, where she dreams about the old days at the Blue
Pearl Ballroom. Just when her feet are itching to get out there and do the
jitterbug -- friends or no friends -- a knock comes on the door, and Miz Mozetta
gets some welcome company.

Lively, colorful illustrations and a rhythmic text make for a jazzy dance
party that readers will delight in attending again and again.